


Dancing Around

by Petralice



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends: Thrawn Trilogy - Timothy Zahn
Genre: Cute, Cute Ending, Cutesy, Dancing, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Slow Dancing, Tsundere
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-08
Updated: 2019-12-08
Packaged: 2021-02-25 09:56:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21713989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Petralice/pseuds/Petralice
Summary: Luke tells Mara his childhood dream is to dance with someone under the stars. Mara decides she can technically fulfill that dream. Before she kills him, of course.
Relationships: Mara Jade & Luke Skywalker
Comments: 4
Kudos: 38





	Dancing Around

She guessed it could have been worse.

Mara Jade had been in more harrowing situations than this—her cover blown due to an inept partner, her quarry more agile than she had once supposed, her plan thrown to the wind as some twist or turn caught her unawares—but this? This was something she would have traded all those situations for.

Skywalker was sitting across from her, shifting logs in the campfire to keep the flames going. Not dead. Not anywhere near dead. And she wasn’t even allowed to choke him or stab him or shoot him in the heart like she wanted to. So she had to content herself with glowering at him, at his stupid sand-colored hair and stupid blue eyes and stupid black glove as he moved one of the logs to coax the fire from sleepy to roaring again.

He flicked those blue eyes toward her and curled his lips up in a soft smile. “Are you alright?”

She sneered at him and leaned back, feeling the grass beneath her crunch. “I’m fine.”

His smile did not disappear as he returned his gaze to the fire and sat back too.

She watched him, not bothering to conceal it. He was so at ease around her. How could he be? He knew she wanted nothing more in this universe than to smite him where he sat, so how could he be so calm right now? No one had ever really, truly been calm around her. Sure, they pretended to be, including Talon Karrde, but she was used to being the stranger not to be trusted and reading how tense her prey was around her. But this man—he was actually, genuinely, totally relaxed right now. And it infuriated her like nothing else ever had.

Finally, she couldn’t take it anymore.

“What are you doing?” she shot.

He cocked his head. “What do you mean?”

“This…this act you’re putting on,” she clarified, waving a hand. “What are you doing? You know I hate you.”

“I am aware.”

“I could wipe you off the map. I could turn you into a mist if I wanted to.”

He just looked at her, his lips never descending back into rest, and she had to keep herself from curling her hand into a fist.

“How are you so…alright with this?” she finally asked, looking down toward the grass beyond her right knee. It was night, but she found a point in the dark to look at and kept her eyes focused there.

He was silent for a few seconds. Then he said, “I feel safe now. The Force tells me there is no danger here, not really. There’s no need for me to be on edge.”

She had her blaster drawn and pointed at him in a matter of seconds. “Are you sure there’s no danger here? What does the Force tell you now?”

He put his hands up, slowly, but he still smiled as he said, “The Force tells me the danger level has gone up a little.”

Mara kept the blaster pointed at him for two seconds, three, four. Then she sighed and put the blaster back in its holster. “I won’t shoot you. For now. But there are no promises for later.”

“I didn’t expect there to be.”

*

The fire had gone down to coals again without a word exchanged between them. With the light reduced to a slight orange glow, Mara could look up and see countless twinkling stars, each vying for her attention as they pulsed in the sky.

“They’re beautiful,” said a voice from the other side of the fire.

She jumped, hoping he hadn’t seen. She grunted in reply.

A little time went by before he said, “You know, I always wanted to dance under the stars.”

“That’s stupid,” she spat.

He chuckled. His voice was disembodied now, coming at her as if from a black void. “Maybe so, but it's something I've always wanted to do. It’s just a hopeless childhood dream.”

She shifted her weight, watching the coals of the campfire flicker in front of her. And she thought about it. This was a dream she could…technically make come true. And it wasn’t like he was asking for a ton of money or jewels or fame or power or anything. She was going to off him at some point, and the least she could do in her somewhat guilty heart was fulfill this ridiculously pure childhood wish. She stared at the coals, huffing for a few seconds, her trigger finger itching to just blow him away.

“Fine.”

“Hm?” he said.

She took a deep breath. “I’ll dance with you.”

There were rustles as he moved across from her. “You don’t have to, Mara. It’s alright.”

“No, I…I will. Just this once. Just because it’s your wish and I’m going to kill you sometime soon.” She stood up, her fists clenched. “Don’t forget I’m going to kill you soon.”

He stood too, she noticed from the rustling grass. “I won’t ever forget that. Don’t worry, Mara Jade. And…thank you.”

She moved toward the sound of his voice, her hands finding his after some fumbling.

“This is dumb,” she said…although…now that she was pressed against his chest, the orange glow beneath her and the quiet song of the insects singing around her, she found this was…not so bad…

“I’m sorry you find this ‘dumb,’” said Skywalker, and for once, she felt a little ashamed of what she’d said.

They danced to the music of the insects, of the howling and screeching wildlife, of the wind in the trees, of the crackles still left in the fire, of the stars. Mara leaned into how warm he was. He was so strong, so gentle and content as he held her hands in his. And eventually, she closed her eyes and leaned her forehead into his chest, taking herself back into her own childhood crushes, into her own spaces where she felt safe and secure—

“Hey,” she said harshly into the night.

“Yes, Mara?”

They stopped swaying, stopped moving to whatever rhythm they had decided for themselves, though she could still feel his heartbeat in her chest and his breath on her cheek.

“Stop. It’s time to go to sleep.”

There was silence. Then he disentangled his fingers from hers and took a step back. What hurt her most was the sudden emptiness.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’ll sleep now.”

She stood there and listened to him pick a spot and bed down for the night. She even kept standing as his breathing became more and more steady. She looked up at the stars and watched their twinkles, sighing into the darkness, into the night. She didn’t know what had come over her. She didn’t know what was going on with this…Skywalker character.

She wouldn’t let it happen again.

**Author's Note:**

> I love Luke and Mara so much <3 Please leave suggestions for me to write them!


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